Continuing Congressional Inaction on Spending Risks Stagflation

Commentary This morning’s jobs numbers surprised the bond market, printing at 199,000 new jobs, slightly above the consensus market expectations of 180,000. Revisions were revised down by 35,000 jobs. Government added another 49,000 jobs, all of them at the state and local level, that are included in the 199,000 number. The Household Survey, which is which is a poll to estimate the number of people employed, as opposed to the number of jobs created, and which is determined separately, estimated 180,000 new jobs were created. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.7 percent, down from last month’s 3.9 percent, but up slightly from the 3.6 percent of November 2022. Among the unemployed, 2,145,000 have remained unemployed for 15 weeks or more....